The Meaning Of Hitler By Sebastian Haffner Essay

The book, The Meaning of Hitler by Sebastian Haffner, was written in 1979. The author, Sebastian Haffner, is a German himself. Born in Berlin, he moved to London during Hitler’s reign, before the Second World War. There, he changed his name due to incompatible beliefs with the Nazi Germany. As a result of his Jewish wife and his German heritage, the author may have seemed biased at some points. Being forced to flee his home and move to England may have had an impact on his views and opinions of Adolf Hitler (David Childs). The book, formatted with a narrative style and structure, features many different aspects of the life that Adolf Hitler lived. Haffner analyzes Adolf Hitler’s life, achievements, successes, misconceptions, and a few other factors of Hitler’s

The book contains a series of brief chapters that each tell a different part of his story. In the first chapter, The Meaning of Hitler tells about the first 30 years of Hitler’s life. This section of the book shows great insight into the components that made up Hitler’s early life. The chapters Achievements, Successes and Misconceptions showcase the good parts of Hitler’s life, while other chapters like Mistakes, Crimes and Betrayal show the poor parts of his life. Overall, I found this book insightful and well written even though it could occasionally be contradictory. While reading The Meaning of Hitler, although occasionally contradicting, I found that the book was very insightful and strongly written. In the beginning of the book, Haffner presents facts about Hitler that may not be well known. The first page of the book reads, “Adolf Hitler’s father made a success of life… His son began by making a mess of his life. He did not finish school…”(Haffner 3). Hitler’s father was a successful, honored and respected man and Hitler is known to many as inferior who took millions of innocent lives. Although many* know about some components of Hitler’s life, not many know about his father, or the